Strengthening Dropbox through diversity

We want to be a company where Dropboxers from any background can build a career they love. That’s why we’re committed to building a team with diverse perspectives focused on creating innovative products for our users around the world. We’re working hard to minimize the biases that exist in the workplace by changing how we recruit, promote and retain employees with unique life experiences.

Here’s what we’re doing:

Recruiting and spotting talent: We’ve changed the types of questions we ask in interviews and trained interview debrief moderators on inclusiveness. We’re also proactively sourcing women for technical and management roles, and recruiting graduates from historically black colleges and universities. Since making these changes we’ve doubled the percentage of women in technical roles.

Promotions and growth opportunities: To ensure that everyone has the same opportunities to grow, we’ve worked with experts to identify how bias can affect career trajectory. For example, the word “abrasive” can be applied to women while the same attribute is referred to as “confident” or “assertive” when it comes to men. We want to figure out ways to head that off through bias training and adjust our performance review processes to be as objective as possible.

Engagement and retention: We’re working hard to retain and engage diverse employees by looking at engagement and satisfaction numbers on a regular basis. If we see differences in results between groups of people, we actively address them.

We recognize that these initiatives are just small steps toward tackling a much larger issue. Until the pool of diverse candidates increases in technology overall, these steps can only take us so far. Solving the problem at-large requires a long term effort to engage women and underrepresented minorities in STEM early on.

Engaging the community: We’ve empowered Dropboxers who are passionate about engaging kids in technology to pilot their ideas. For example, we’re working with Circle the Schools, which paired Dropbox with a local high school for mentoring, tutoring, and fundraising. We’re also working with All Star Code, a non-profit focused on helping black male high school students engage in computer science. And we’re powering our own Dreamcode Tour, where we visit high school classrooms in the Bay Area to inspire students from all backgrounds to dream big about possible futures in tech.

These are early steps in view of how complex these issues are, but we’re optimistic that the tech community’s leadership and work in this area will make a difference. It’s a privilege to be involved in making a diverse tech workforce a reality, and we’re committed to putting our best effort forward.

It’s a new technology startup company. Traditionally, the heads of companies will be older, and thus contribute to diversity in age. However, this is a new company that was started by young persons. I doubt the the elderly are seeking entry level positions in tech startups.

I just watched that video for the first time, and I really don’t get how the AirBnB and dropbox guys were that in the wrong? They legitimately booked the pitch. Seemed to me like the kids felt entitled to it just because they’d been playing there for years?
It’s like when you book a train ticket and get a reserved seat. Then when you board the train you find someone is sitting in your seat. You kindly tell them that the seat they’re in has been reserved and would they mind moving else where, only for them to say no, if there are other free seats you can go find them? Fair? No.

It’s great hear that diversity in the workplace is a priority. It’s particularly awesome to see it initiated by smaller companies that aren’t subject to the same scrutiny like Google and Microsoft. It demonstrates a genuine desire to increase diversity as opposed to limiting negative PR. My only concern is that this commitment seems focused on diversity in ethnicity and sex, which are both very important. But we should not forget other groups that will offer novel perspectives, like our veterans and disabled persons.

Why oh why is 86.7% of our staff White or Asian? Aw shucks, the issue is just so complex! Luckily, nothing we ever do will address the systemic disadvantages faced by Blacks and Latinos, not to mention Native Americans, in education, health care, housing, and employment You know, all the things that make up the conditions in which people grow and flourish or are left behind.

Dropbox is one company that won’t solve crap on its own. But it would be amazing if it were a company that truly had ethics and good politics. For starters, how about this tiny act? Strongly encourage employees to not rent in apartments in buildings cleared via an Ellis Act evication? Nope, to much to even consider.

Ugh, Dropbox and the culture of displacement and homogeneity you represent can eat a bag of dic**.

Please note: Sometimes we blog about upcoming products or features before they’re released, but timing and exact functionality of these features may change from what’s shared here. The decision to purchase our services should be made based on features that are currently available.